IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!

So we went in yesterday for the ultrasound that tells you the sex of the baby and if your little munchkin is healthy and strong and we found out that we are having a girl. We are super excited! Myles was actually giggling through the whole thing because he loves the idea of two little ladies running around the house. The baby looked really healthy and all of her measurements were right where they were supposed to be so we feel really blessed and really relieved. It's funny how worried you get about them before they're even born. Olivia still doesn't really get that Mommy is having a baby, but we've been trying to explain it to her and pump her up about having a little sister. I think they'll be great friends and will really enjoy having each other to look out for and look up to. We still can't believe that we are going to have two kids, but we are so excited and it just makes our family feel a little more complete.

CHECK OUT MY BASS!!!

I know what you're thinking... that guy has a really nice bass. Well, Laura thinks so too. Enjoy.

This was a fun catch. The first time I had my bobber in the water, she went after it but didn't take. I cast out again, and watched her play with my worm a couple of times before I knew I had her. She really fought me all the way in, and I was yelling from the dock for someone to come take a picture. It took a while to get the hook out, but when we got her back in the water, she came to her senses and swam away.

TWO YEARS OLD!!!!!

On July 12th our sweet little Olivia had her 2nd birthday and we can't believe she's already two, the time has just flown by. Olivia loved her birthday and is still talking about it, for example, we got her an ice cream cake and now every time I open the freezer she rushes over and says "my birthday cake." She was crazy excited about her cake, she loved all the attention, and she didn't think the present opening part was too shabby either. We just had a little party with family at Myles parents house. Everyone had a great time boating, swimming, stuffing our faces and watching Olivia and her cousin having a blast with one another in the kiddy pool. So I've added a million pictures because too many of them were too cute to leave out.

We started off the morning with donuts so that we could put candles in one of them for Liv, you know practice before the big moment at the party, and she absolutely loved it! She really got the royal treatment on her big day.

All dressed up and so excited about the princess cd player that Aunt Misha gave her.

Liv and Lucy ready for a crazy boat ride from Papa Martin

Don't they look so happy.

The girls weren't too excited about the ride on the tube. Liv yelled for "mommy" the whole time and Lucy just pretended to be asleep, I think that way she felt she didn't have to deal with the trauma of it all, but everyone else loved it especially when the babies weren't on and Papa Martin could go crazy with the boat trying to knock them off.

This kiddy pool kept the girl entertained for hours.

Liv blowing out her candles, she got them both on the first try.

We dared her to just take a big bite out of her cake, but she only got as far as sticking out her tongue pretending she was going to have a big lick.

Liv and Lucy having a blast on the new tricycle that Bojanney & Papa Martin surprised Liv with.

Thanks Bojanney and Papa Martin, we love you!

Liv sporting her new shades from uncle Jeron and Aunt Jodee, aren't they so stinken cute.

Our family (including my little baby bump for #2). We had so much celebrating Olivia's big day and we are so thankful to have her in our lives, she really does bring us so much happiness.

Announcements

So I have two pretty exciting announcements to share with everyone. First our sweet little Olivia has potty trained herself and it's like a dream come true. We really didn't do anything. We had her sit on the potty a couple of times and "try" to go to the bathroom and she did it, but then life got busy and we hadn't bothered with it for awhile. Then a few weeks ago she just started telling me "I gotta go potty." She's pretty amazing, she'll tell us that she has to go and then if we aren't by a bathroom, she'll actually hold it until we can find one, it's crazy. She's not even two! To celebrate her potty victory (besides all the dancing, praise, and high fives) we bought her "princess" Tinkerbell panties and she loves them. Olivia continues to amaze us every day and like I've said before, we think she's a total genius!

Our second bit of news is that we are expecting our second baby on January 6th and we are so excited! I've felt a lot worse with this pregnancy than I did with Olivia, but I guess that's the price you pay and now I have a lot more sympathy for those who REALLY get sick while they're pregnant. I've also craved meat and veggies with this one and with Liv it was all sweet things so Myles is really hoping that means it's a boy. We find out in August what we are having and I don't really care either way, but I think Myles and his Dad want a boy so they can plan out his wrestling future (poor little guy). Olivia doesn't really grasp the concepts that there is a baby growing in Mommy's tummy, but she absolutely loves babies and I'm sure she'll be so excited to be a big sister.

WE BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!!!!!!!

So after months of dealing with lenders, mortgage companies, title companies, and whoever else needed information from us, we finally closed on our "new" home! It's a little place just a few blocks from where we live now and it's a total fixer upper, but we are really excited to be first time homeowners (even if there is an incredible, and I mean incredible, amount of work to do inside and out). Luckily we have Myles' Dad, who has all the right connections and knows all the right people, helping us out. The house has two bedrooms, one bath, a big ol' attic that needs to be fixed up, and an unfinished basement that we are probably going to turn into a separate apartment. The people who owned it previously smoked so we've spent the past weekend painting with "Killz" primer to get rid of the nicotine yellow that seemed to cling to every surface. Like I said before, there is a ton of work to do, but it's been kind of fun to have a big project like this to work on. Here's some pictures of the new place. It doesn't look the prettiest, but it definitely has potential.

This is the house from the side. The door way leads to the basement so it's perfect for a little apartment down there. The house definitely needs some landscaping, but I guess that's the last thing we are going to work on.

This is the front entry way and as you can see our tile guys started before I could even get pictures of the house in the state that we bought it in. Also notice the lovely dark brown trim...we have no idea what would possess someone to paint trim this color. Actually now thinking about it, they probably did it so the nicotine yellow wouldn't show up. SICK!

This is the front room and it has some nice features, the arch, the fireplace, and the wood floors, but unfortunately the floors are so beat up that we are just going to have to carpet over them.

Here's the beautiful kitchen! It's honestly so stinken gross, but it's getting better. The floors are being tiled, the counter tops are going to be granite, the walls will be painted and I get the fun job of painting and touching up all the cabinets. It'll take forever, but I'm determined to make them look fabulous.

Here's the kitchen nook. We are doing the same things to it as we're doing in the kitchen.

Here's the "master" bedroom. We joke about how huge it is all the time, really we're just hoping that after we get it all spruced up that our bed will even fit in it.

Olivia's room had the best paint job that I had ever seen...not. Look how ridiculous this is. Needless to say the blue was one of the first things to go. The room also showcases the nicotine yellow perfectly. It was so gross and I was so happy to get the carpets ripped out and the walls painted this past weekend. I'll post pictures of the final product when it gets finished. Below is the bathroom and it's already getting some major renovations, the vanity and everything above it is being ripped out, the thing above the toilet is gone, the toilet is being changed to face a different direction, and it is also being tiled and painted.

Afternoon at the beach!

Most people think it's pretty cool when you tell them that you live just a couple blocks from the beach, but the beaches in Washington are a little different than the picture that pops into their mind. They are really rocky, hardly any sand, since it's the Puget Sound there aren't many waves coming in, and the water is FREEZING...but all of that didn't stop us from enjoying the beach on a sunny afternoon. On Saturday the sun actually popped through the clouds, it was a miracle, and we couldn't waste the day inside so we packed Olivia up, picked up some subway sandwiches and headed over to Mukilteo beach. Olivia absolutely loves throwing rocks in the water so she was in heaven, plus there were about 5 million people there so she was able to watch all the kids and admire every doggy running by. It was a really fun family activity and I decided that I don't care what kind of beach it is, rocks or white sand, I love them all!

Glasses

This just cracks me up so I had to share it with all of you. Olivia loves glasses and since I won't let her play with mine she's opted for her Potato Heads pair. She asks me to help her put them on almost every day and once I've got them squished on to her chubby little face, she has to look at herself in the mirror for like a good five minutes, while saying "Cute!" She really makes me laugh and Myles and I have so much fun with her. What an amazing little lady!